Still Sliding Down

Richmond 7, Chillicothe 1

It's getting tough at this point in the season.

That's the one sentence summary of what I would say is happening to the Paints right now. Everything is getting pretty tough for the team, and perhaps since we're entering the all-star break in the Prospect League, the Paints could afford some time off. At least for most of them of course because some of the Paints players will be making the trip to Springfield, Illinois for the All-Star game. The Paints as a unit aren't getting in the right hits. They're getting in hits, but not the right, timely hits.

The Chillicothe Paints got a bit of a bad break early on when starting pitcher Stephen Shackleford had to come out of the ballgame due to the fact that he got right in the face with a groundball up the pitcher's mound. Somehow, the ball managed to get up on Stephen and it left a cut somewhere on his face, and I won't get into any more details than that because not many people know what this cut really is. As for Stephen, he would pitch 1 and 2/3 innings in his outing and would give up two runs total. He would give up three hits and one walk.

Rex Ingham would fill in for Shackleford for the rest of the way, and truthfully, things did not get any better when he got into the game. He gave up 5 hits and a walk while striking out one batter. Rex would end up surrendering 4 more runs to Richmond. He would go 3 and 1/3 innings deep in his outing. Mark Williams and Brad Schnitzer would each get into the game, but the damage was done once again for the third night in a row.

As for the offense, Andy Brouse had two singles and an RBI, but he made an obvious baserunning blunder in the fifth inning that got the Paints out of it. Tim Krofcheck had a single and a stolen base. Kyle Gendron had a single. DH Cory Maguire had a single. Zach Leonard had a single. Zach Frentsos had a single and a stolen base. Here was the main thing to note about this display of offense for this game. The hits that the Paints made for this game were not stringed together.

These hits did not produce runs. These hits did not put any pressure on Richmond's defense at most points in the game. When you're on offense, you have to bring pressure to the opposing defense. You only score runs with your offense, so you'll make the most noise on offense while you leave the stopping up to your defense and the pitching on the mound for your team.

I really don't know what it could be, but consider that since this is a collegiate wooden bat league, there's a little (note the word "little") more room for error in a team's performance, but nonetheless, you still have to bring what you got onto that field. You have to have a sharp mind when you're on the basepaths, and you have to know the situation when you're in the batter's box. The Paints just haven't shown that in nearly a week, so the all-star break should be used for them to put their focus back on the fundamentals.